Bumper Stickers

I heard a phrase the other day in the analysis of the Democratic Debate.  A commentator was speaking about the appeal of Amy Klobuchar, saying that she and Pete Buttigieg appealed to “the center” of the Democratic Party.  The two were called “Pragmatic Moderate Midwestern Democrats;” drawing more political lines in the sand.  It definitely isn’t a good bumper sticker slogan.  

Trump Country

I live in Pataskala, Ohio, twenty miles east of downtown Columbus.  The town is located in Licking County, with the county seat in Newark, fifteen miles to the east.  Columbus is in Franklin County, where in 2016, Hillary Clinton got 60.6% of the vote.  Here in Licking, Donald Trump got 62%.

So where I live, what in my college sociology class was called the “exurbs,” is still pretty much “Trump Country”.  Our blue flag with the words “Literally Anyone Else for 2020” emblazoned on it, is waving in a very lonely cold breeze in front of our house. 

I guess that makes me a Midwestern Democratic.  I also considered myself a “liberal” in the old school sense.  Liberals were my role models in the Democratic Party, folks like Hubert Humphrey and Bobby Kennedy from when I was first got involved in politics.  And today I still look at new-speak “Progressives” as liberal; Senator Sherrod Brown comes quickly to mind.

So as I look at the Presidential Campaign for 2020, I’m trying to figure out where my “liberalism” fits into the current crop of candidates.  I’ve never been at the Social-Democrat extreme of the Party with Bernie Sanders, nor was I comfortable with Bill Clinton’s Republican-Lite.  

Health Care

Lets look at health care.  In my heart, it makes sense to me that America should move to a single-payer health system, controlled by the government.  Medicare, with all of its flaws, serves 44 million Americans today.  Most are pretty happy with their benefits, so much so that when the Paul Ryan Republicans tried to “privatize” that care, it turned out to be a political non-starter.

So it doesn’t seem a huge leap to me to simply “grow” the program into Medicare “for everyone”.  So that’s “liberal”, right?

But there’s a real electoral problem with that, and it’s about what used to be the Democratic base.  Labor Unions were Democratic, and they used to represent over a third of America workers.  Today, it’s closer to ten percent.  But those workers have given up wages and hours to get good benefits, particularly good health insurance.  They aren’t willing to give up that insurance easily.

And that’s where the “pragmatic” part comes in.  If “Medicare for all” means losing the election, then the “ideal” needs to be moderated to fit what the electorate will accept.  I don’t view that as a “sellout;” but more a recognition that change requires leadership willing to convince, cajole, and coordinate, rather than march alone in the front. 

Climate Change

Healthcare is easier to reconcile with today’s electoral reality.  Climate change is different.  The immediacy of this crisis, and the “clock and the calendar” (thanks Doug Collins) of a global tipping point makes it impossible to find a “moderate” stand.  Change is going to come, we either have to take control of that change, or we, and more importantly our progeny, will face the consequences.

Again though, that requires leadership, not just prophecy.  It requires education, even educating those folks who don’t want to hear that coal and gas are causing the problem.  And that’s what a leader needs to do.  I guess that’s pragmatic too.

Southern Border

And then there’s the issue of illegal immigration and immigrants.  There can be no waffling on what’s going on at our Southern border.  We are putting people into nothing less than concentration camps, we are still separating children from their parents, and we are creating a crisis of poverty and violence on the Mexican side.  All of that needs to stop and it needs to stop now.  The atrocities (yes, that’s the correct word too) have to be redressed.

But that doesn’t solve the long-term problem of what to do with folks coming to the border.  And Democrats aren’t answering that question.  The answer will take a serious financial commitment to Central America, and changes in American attitudes.  We need to view those immigrants as refugees, not invaders.  Again, that’s the job of a leader.

That’s hardly even being discussed in the Debates these days.  Like everything else in our world, it’s being overwhelmed by Impeachment and Elections.  

Label

I have never seen myself as “moderate”.  Bill Clinton, in my view, was a moderate, and I didn’t agree with a lot of what he did.   But in today’s spectrum, it seems there isn’t much to the “right” of Biden, Klobuchar or Buttigieg.  Maybe Mike Bloomberg but we haven’t really gotten much more than “I can beat Trump” from his millions.  

So on the current chart maybe my Liberalism is moderate.  And I definitely am pragmatic, if pragmatic means defeating Trump in 2020.   Maybe the commentator was talking about me – a “Pragmatic Moderate Midwestern Democrat”. 

Better get a bigger bumper.